The Detroit Lions are a little beat up going into their matchup with the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving, so they made multiple roster moves ahead of the game to help them out. Here's what they did.
Placed Kalif Raymond on injured reserve
This one kind of felt like it was coming after Dan Campbell's comments on Sunday evening and Monday morning. Raymond's foot injury will keep him out for the next four games. The good news is that it sounds like he could be back right after that and before the playoffs.
Signed David Long to active roster
Placing Raymond on IR and waiving James Houston on Tuesday opened up two roster spots for the Lions. They're going to go ahead and fill one of them with a veteran linebacker they signed last week. Long came on pretty nice in his debut for the Lions against the Colts and with Alex Anzalone and Jalen Reeves-Maybin out, the Lions are going to need the linebacker depth.
Elevate Jamarco Jones from practice squad
The Lions are going to need to find some help with Taylor Decker out of this one. Jones has experience in playing just about everywhere on the line. He was elevated once before this season when the Lions were without Decker for a game. He's mostly going to be insurance for this one.
Signed Maurice Alexander to active roster
With Raymond out the Lions are going to need someone to be a return man and we've seen Alexander be successful at that in the preseason the last two years. Now he's going to likely get some real shots to do it in the regular season and on a big stage during Thanksgiving.
